Q: Why is Guy de Maupassant known as one of the fathers of the modern short story? How might his personal life have influenced his writing? Does his short story "The Necklace" seem to fall into his

usual style and theme? Explain.

A: Maupassant is the father of the French short story. Some would even say that he is the father of the modern short story (or at least one of the fathers). [ Though he didn't invent the short story genre, he perfected it, popularized it, and greatly expanded his audience's understanding of what could be done with it. It helped that he wrote some three hundred short stories, all mostly between 1880

and 1890.
Maupassant was also famous for his use of the twist endings. Guy didn't invent that either, and he certainly didn't use it in every one of his stories. But when he did use it, he was good at it, and it was he, more than anyone else, who made the twist ending big.because "The Necklace" has the most famous of all of Maupassant's twist endings – which is also why it's his most famous short work. Though he was already well-known in France by the time he wrote it, in the English-speaking world his initial fame rested largely on this little jewel of a story. It was a particular hit with Americans, who couldn't get over how cool the ending was. In fact, the story led to something of a twist-ending fad in popular literature. It wasn't too long before the U.S. produced its own version of Maupassant, O. Henry, whose story "Gift of the Magi" may have the other most famous twist ending of all time. ]